Risk Assessment - Term Paper Example

Global Finance, Inc. (GFI) Number: Lecturer: Consult the Global Finance, Inc. (GFI) is a hypothetical company that has rapidly grown over the years. The company has focused on in its network and designed it to be the fault tolerant and redundant from any system failure. However, the company has experienced a number of network security incidences in the past. It financial overview has expanded over the years, but its security seem to be taking the opposite direction. GFI has historically been stable, and the company has not experienced many full-scale network outages over the years. The company has three network engineers to keep up with the growing network and the bandwidth demands. However, there is no security expert tasked with ensuring secure operational environment. The company’s network is segregated into segments. The Trusted Computing Base is the internal network within GFI. This segment hosts company’s mission critical systems that are essential to the company’s operations that affect the financial situation. The most used systems in the enterprise are Oracle database and email. GFI cannot afford a network outage due to the nature of activities in it undergoes. It financial activities will be adversely affected since they depend on network availability and stability. As it is, GFI has experienced DoS attacks twice this year, and its Oracle database and email servers have been compromised for a total downtime of one week. The recovery process cost the company $25,000 and an estimated loss of $1, 000,000 was recorded in addition to customer confidence. In this study, I am going to undertake risk assessment based on GFI network diagram. Knowledge of the vulnerabilities existing in the network will facilitate the design of a solution to counter the threats. Company network description Risk assessment on the GFI Inc. network Risk assessment will be conducted ion GFI network to establish the likely areas of failure. Risk assessment will focus on managerial, operational and technical aspects that are prone to vulnerabilities and which can be exploited by attackers. Once vulnerabilities have been established, it is easy to tailor safeguards to counter them. Security safeguards and controls are measures undertaken in the company, or added to the information technology environment to mitigate the risks associated with the operation and management of resources. A risk assessment procedure is conducted to determine the adequacy of security controls employed by Global Finance Incorporation. The risk assessment process adopts a methodology and, in this case, a qualitative methodology is preferred. It focuses on the vulnerabilities, risks, threats and safeguards that are applicable. The assessment documents probable security lapses and controls that can be employed to ensure that network is available and effective always (Daley & Dawkins, 2012). GFI Network and interconnection GFI networks comprise of several interconnected devices that work together to deliver effective communication architecture. The elements in the GI network include internet segments, remote users, PSTN, trusted computing base and workstations. This network is comprised of core, distribution and access layers. The core layer includes the core routers that are responsible for fast and reliable transportation of data across the network. It acts as the backbone of the network. The internal users in the network include accounting, loan, finance, customer service credit, and management. They are the offline components of the network and are used for files exchanges and communication within the company. They are also used for online communication via other components in the network. The remote dial-up segment is connected to the Public Switch Telephone Network. Remote users can communicate with the company through dial-up connections over the internet. Remote users must use a web interface to access network resources, and this is facilitated by the VPN tunneling. Dial-up access acts as the transient connection because the ISP or the user terminates the connection. SS7 signaling protocol is used to interconnect the dial-up user and the PSTN. PSTN is naturally expensive, and access to VPDN is via the ISP local point presence. The dial-up user and the PSTN all coordinate to provide gateway control. Routers, on the other hand, determine the path that the datagram will take in order to arrive at the destination. In this case, the six departments including accounting, loan, customer service, management credit and finance are connected to the router using a 10Gbps Ethernet. The network diagram is complicated in that the number of routers connected to the network is large. A complex routing configuration is required to map target machine addresses to the nodes (Tomsho, 2011). PSTN makes the connection to the PBX and the routers to allow network access. Using a node, switch, the entire network is connected to the trusted computing base internal network. The trusted computing base network houses the critical components including SUS server, Oracle 9I DB server, Internal DNS, Exchange 2000 Email, File and Printer Server, workstations, and intranet web server. Security vulnerabilities The network diagram of GFI is vulnerable in a number of ways. The vulnerabilities can be classified as malware attacks, monitoring, data loss and decreased productivity. Malicious software comprises of viruses, worms, and Trojans. They can be transmitted to the GFI system via infected media such as memory drives. If such devices are allowed to be used by employees, they can be an important source of malicious code. Once the system is infected with bots, it can be controlled remotely. With respect to monitoring and reconnaissance, applications such as packet sniffers, port scans, and Ping sweeps are used. For example, an attacker ping sweeps a network and determines IP addresses that are alive in the network. The intruder then ask the ports to determine application systems and types and even operating system running on a target. It is based on this information that an intruder determines whether a possible vulnerability exists. The information caught from sniffing software such as Nslookup and Whois are used to advance another type of attacks. The integrity of information held in the network is of paramount importance. The DMZ usually comprises of two firewalls with each one providing a specific function. Since the DMZ provides a buffer between the internal network and the uncontrolled internet, it requires it to be bound by two firewalls. A first firewall is tasked with inspecting traffic from the internet to hosts in the DMZ and outgoing traffic from the hosts to the Internet. The second firewall is tasked with inspecting traffic incoming from internal networks to the host in the DMZ and outgoing from hosting the DMZ to internal network components. In the case of GFI, this is lacking, and a single firewall is used. Data storage is a concern in the organization. As per the network diagram, data is hosted in-house in Oracle 9i databases. In the scenario of a network failure, data loss might be experienced. There is no remote backup site to guarantee data availability in cases of an outage. GFI has not installed a detection and prevention system to prevent denial of service attacks. Denial of service is an attack that blocks servers to the file server jamming the whole system and finally cracking it (Daley & Dawkins, 2012). This kind of attack is executed by, for instance, flooding queues with TCP SYN on the systems.GFI Network. The queue is finally filled with TCP requests and since the system is trying to reply with the same number of requests, system resources particularly bandwidth network is quickly exhausted. One of the facilitators of denial of service attacks is routers placed on the front side of the organization and connected to the internet. The attacker once certain the router is connected to the internet perform foot-printing to determine its type, susceptibility, and other details. The attacker then sends tones of packets that make it overwhelmed and consequently break down or slow down. At this point, the router cannot differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate traffic and fails to authenticate legitimate users (Mavridis .I.P., 2011). The loss of productivity in the network might result from power outages. Given that there is no power backup mechanism in the company, power blackouts causes network failure and the time and effort needed to restore power failures cannot be compared to the amount of losses incurred inform of opportunities and sales. Security controls Security of organizations gateways to external networks, internal networks and the internal is critical for maintenance of overall security. It serves to protect integrity, confidentiality and availability of data. Availability of any organizations gateway is paramount when external and internal services are provided to customers. If the gateway is not secured, services will not be provided, and employees will not access the data and information required to transact business. The gateway should be made the most secure component of a network (Ogletree, 2014). Virus filtering should be conducted on gateway systems. Also, access control should be conducted at the gateway to establish the safety of incoming and outgoing traffic. Virus filtering is always executed by passing network traffic to virus-scanning server to review the payload of each packet and pass it to the destination target if clean. If a malware is detected, the packet terminates at the malware scanning server, consequently preventing it from infecting the network. In order to develop a highly redundant network, redundant connection is used to connect distribution and edge switches by link aggregation. Distribution/edge switches will be physically connected to core switches though the logical assertion is that it is the same switch. A sure way to achieve redundancy is a distributed network is to use a spanning tree that detects an unintentional loop in the topology and blocks it (Szigeti, 2013). In the case of GFI, two core routers are used. To achieve the same physical topology, virtualization is used in the core. The principle is that two physical chassis are connected by employing a set of dedicated Ethernet connections with a proprietary backplane between them to output a logically single network. Cryptography recommendations Cryptography is a paramount security measure employed to restore security and privacy of data. Confidentiality, control, and practice are employed in cryptography. Privacy is guaranteed while using cryptography techniques by protecting personal data so that unauthorized personal do not have access to it. Privacy, in its definition, can be linked to the use of strong cryptographic keys. The second paradigm of cryptography adds to what is familiar in textbooks, the ability o control what happens with personal data. This is referred to as the right of information self-determination. Here several advanced cryptographic schemes play a crucial role. For instance, techniques that reduce the amount of personal data released to a bare minimum are appropriate. The third paradigm of cryptography is transparency and refers to how information is collected, aggregated and used. In this perspective, cryptography plays a role in enforcing policies developed to guard personal data. In the case of GFI, a number of cryptographic propositions are offered to be used at various levels in the network to protect information. They include: Encryption – Encryption is a process of making data indecipherable by changing it to ciphertext to protect it against unauthorized access. Encryption employs cryptographic key and even if outsiders get access to the ciphertext, a good encryption technique only makes conversion of ciphertexts into original data impossible. Only persons possessing the right decryption key are allowed to convert and get the original data. Usually, encryption and authentication are two different security procedures that work independently, but for a robust security performance, both should be employed. Encryption ensures that even if the data is exposed as a result of successful attacks, they make no sense to the attacker as they cannot be converted to original data (Dean, 2009). Data authentication Data authentication is a way of making undetected modification of data impossible. A cryptographic check or a digital signature is added to the data. It is understood that data in GFI may fall into the wrong hands, and the data and the tag might be exposed, however, any modification attempt will invalidate the tag and computing a new tag will only be possible if the required cryptographic/authentication key is available. The key is as valid as possible and is checked by the verification algorithm that employs a verification key. Hashing Hashing is the technique of computing a short and unique representation out of a piece of information that cannot be reversed. Hashing is utilized for building digital footprints of messages because it is irreversible. It is also appropriate for Operating System security where it is required to authenticate important files by hashing to output reference values. Digital signing This is another cryptographic scheme that outputs a short string dependent on the content of the data and a secret key recognized by the signing entity. The validity of a signature is dependent on the known secret owned by the signer. Digital signing combines entity authentication and data authentication and is appropriate in signing organizational communication. Asymmetric cryptography is a digital signing technique that involves the use of hash functions. With respect to GFI, data is encrypted on the servers and end-user devices. For example devices used by dial-in users should be encrypted. The VPN component used for remote access to information should also employ strong encryption standards to add another layer of security. Encryption should also be applied to the trusted computing base to ensure that all communication in and out of the network is sufficiently protected. All the data that is in transit from internal to external networks should be encrypted. Additionally, cryptographic techniques should be applied to implement separation of duties when access controls are not sufficiently granular (Tomsho, 2011). Risk assessment methodology A qualitative risks assessment approach is adopted in the case of GFI. A qualitative risk assessment is appropriate because it does not assign hard financial values to assets, rather, it calculate relative risks. In this case, a risk analysis process is conducted using questionnaires and workshops. Questionnaires are targeted to a variety of groups in the organization including information security experts, GFI owners, IT managers and staff and executive management. Questionnaires are given a few weeks or months to the first security workshop and seek to uncover the assets and controls that are already in place. The information gathered would be used to during the workshops to estimate the relative value of each asset and the impact of a vulnerability or attack. The threats and vulnerabilities are imagined, and the group exploits ways of mitigating them. Information and security experts will look at the probable threats, mitigation measures, and associated costs (Harold F. Tipton, 2006). This approach is suitable because it does not involve computing exact values of assets but rather relative figures. It does not put emphasis on establishing precise financial numbers for asset evaluation. The same goes for risk analysis and cost estimation. Therefore, the process is much less demanding and will start showing results in a few weeks or months. This helps establish whether proposed controls are appropriate or not. Assessment presentation The results of the assessment are presented to the management during a cost-benefit analysis process. The cost and benefits are weighed against each other, and if the later surpasses the later, the proposal is adopted. Usually, the results of risk assessment are presented to the management using PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint presentation is essential is because it is brief and highlight the important components of the presentations. In presenting the contents to the management, the manner of presentation matters to ensure that management buy-in is secured. The best way to make a presentation is to make the management aware of what is the point of opening with a conclusion. This will capture their attention and make them aware of the main points in advance. The benefits of the proposal should be described succinctly together with the risks if any. In this case, it should be emphasized that by not following the recommendations, GFI stands to lose a lot in terms of persistent insecurity attacks and missed business. In the case of a security breach, organizational data will be lost and apart from lost business, customer loyalty will also suffer. Further, network outage will affect the availability of services in the organization, and this has significant effects on the revenue stream and customer satisfaction. Resources available on the organization are paramount to business processes internally and externally. For example, database, email, and file servers are hosted internally and service both internal and remote users in branch locations. In the case of an outage, the whole organization will suffer, and sales will be impacted greatly. This fact should be presented clearly to the management together with the proposals for enhancing security and network availability. Proposed network diagram References Daley, K. L., & Dawkins, J. (2012). A structural framework for modeling multi-stage network attacks. IEEE. Dean, T. (2009). Network+ Guide to Networks. Cengage Learning. Harold F. Tipton, M. K. (2006). Information Security Management Handbook, Fifth Edition, Volume 3. CRC Press. Mavridis .I.P., H. P. (2011). Real life paradigm of wireless network security attacks. 2011 Panhellenic Conference on Informatics. Ogletree, T. W. (2014). Upgrading and Repairing Networks. Que Publishing. Szigeti, T. H. ( 2013). End-To-End QoS Network Design: Quality of Service for Rich-Media and Cloud Networks. Pearson Education. Tomsho, G. (2011). Guide to Networking Essentials. Cengage. Read More